To the editor:

Recently, I attended Sen. Pat Roberts’ luncheon at the Dole Institute sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. The Journal-World omitted mention in its article of my question to the senator regarding his statement in October 2002 regarding the Bush doctrine of pre-emption. The Saturday Column of Feb. 21 also omitted any discussion of “pre-emption” statements by Roberts.

My question to the senator was, “Do you still support the Bush doctrine of pre-emption, and what is your position regarding North Korea, since you said in October 2002 at another luncheon speech that in about a year we are going to have to go into North Korea?”

I stated in my question that many of us are stridently opposed to the Bush doctrine of pre-emption, especially in light of recent “government intelligence failures.”

Sen. Roberts replied that pre-emption proved worthwhile in the case of Iraq but that he “meant” to say that pre-emption in the case of North Korea would be diplomatically applied.

My question now is who voted in November 2000 to empower the president of the United States with the authority for “pre-emptive” wars?

Sven Erik Alstrom,

Lawrence